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Monday, August 2, 2010

A Hoosier D-Meetup

It was a Meeting of the Minds.

Well, no actually it wasn't. A Meeting of the Diabetics might be more in order on this one. Sure, we're all smart, but it wasn't an intellectual meeting we'd come together for. Rather, a D-Meetup featuring four active Diabetes Online Community (DOC) members who live in Indiana.

This was our Hoosier-style D-Meetup. We came together on Saturday, July 17, and it was one for the books. Entailing everything from Ninjas, Make-Your-Own Musical Crafts, Artistic (and not so much) Blood Meters on a Plate, Coin-Rolling, Candy-Trading, Etch-A-Sketches, and unfortunately some Food Court Nightmares.

Where: The Children's Museum of Indianapolis... the one with the huge dinosaur standing out front that we all wanted to climb up on top of, but managed to restrain ourselves (this time).

Who (from left to right in photo): Myself (Your Corner Booth Host), Cherise (Diabetic_Iz_Me), Mike Durbin (MyDiabeticHeart), and Jenny (Ninnifur). Jenny and I were flying solo, while Mike came with his girlfriend and Cherise with her husband and wonderfully awesome daughter, Niya.

Sadly, we were missing a key person who isn't from Indiana, but was largely responsible for putting this all into motion. Sarah Jane was heading to northern Indiana for a family event and proposed we all gather in the Indy area as she was passing through. Unfortunately, her joining us wasn't in the stars this time and we missed her. But, we still had a great time!

My morning began with a great fundraising photo shoot at a nearby D-Camp, and from there I made my way to the museum to connect with my D-tweeps. I'd had the chance to previously meet Mike when he was driving through the area, and twice saw Cherise as we both work in Indy and also attended the Roche Summit in Orlando recently. Hadn't met their families/significant others though, and hadn't had the chance to meetup with Jenny until now. We all made it within an hour of the scheduled meetup time, and hit it off pretty quickly.

Mike, Cherise and I first made our way to an interesting little table where we could create our own musical instruments out of paper plates, Popsicle sticks, a bit of string, and some beads. First, Cherise made a little flute-like instrument and started playing a tune and dancing it up in the lobby. Then, we went to draw on paper plates - Mike, a talented artist, drew a meter on the front of Cherise's plate while I created one of my own (The Happy Meter, where no matter your BG, you get a smiley face in the window!) Then, we ventured off to lunch, which had a twist of its own...

Everyone was hungry, so hit the foodcourt. Everything appeared OK, but when we sat down to eat Mike found a huge hair in his sandwich. That just killed the mood. He took it back and got a refund, but it had already killed everyone's appetite. Which turned out to be a problem for me, as I'd just injected my meal bolu for a full sandwich on top of the 56 mg/dL that I'd just tested at... So, Jenny offered some Starburst and others offered their own quick remedies while I went off to buy a couple apple juice boxes. Everything worked out.

From there, we resumed our museum tour and experenced the cooler exhibits that were on display - like the 50th Annversay Etch A Sketch exhbitthat had pictures of Elvis and Michael Jackson (among others), and I took a photo in front of the huge wall of Etch-A-Sketches where I left my initials on one. Played with a magnetic Etch-A-Sketch before moving on, where we had fun in the Barbie Exhibit taking pictures and watching Cherise's daughter put on costumes and danced on the runway like a supermodel. We also saw the Rock N Roll exhibit, where we resisted the temptation to create our own D-Record in the studio but did get to ride on the display motorcylces and see all the rock star guitars in a display case. By the time we left the museum at 5 p.m., we'd had a great time in each other's company experiencing Egypt (where I took a nap on a Spinx), Dinosphere, and The Power of Children. Not to mention the roll a coin down the funnel, where Niya insisted on rescuing any coin that might be rolling toward darkness.

There wasn't much talk about diabetes throughout the afternoon. We all did blood tests and got our insulin fixes when the food came along, and sure there were flashes of D-Life as the day went on (like my apple juice boxes for a Low), but mostly it was just an afternoon with friends!

Of course, no D-Meetup would be complete without an extra little twist of fun. During lunch, Mike had brought his little D-Ninja known as Little G (a handmade doll by my wife that was given during our initial meetup a couple months ago). Sadly, I left my own (the original Lance) at home by mistake and so Little G was on his own. But he found a friend in Niya, who absolutely adored him! She was somewhat upset when told that she couldn't keep Little G, but Mike and I devised a plan that she'd be able to get one of her own. Suzi and I had been planning for some time to make a little ninja for Niya and one for Cherise, but that hadn't yet come to be by the time of this D-Meetup. So, we made other plans.

After we all posed outside the museum for the group photo as our meetup was coming to an end, Mike announced that he'd be giving Little G to Niya - she was so thrilled and happy!! Mike and April then came to my house after that and Lance, who'd somehow managed to escape the trip and stay behind to monitor the Hoskins Household, decided to tag along back to Fort Wayne. So, Little G and Lance both now have new homes and there are plans in the works to expand even more the D-Ninja Family!

So, that was the D-Meetup, Indiana-style. Looking forward to more good times like that in the future, with those fellow Hoosiers and anyone else who's able to grab some time and gather for some fun times!

Your Corner Booth Host

Mike Hoskins

Who Am I?

Just a guy in his 30s, who's been living with Type 1 diabetes since the age of five. A husband, friend, dog owner, journalist, writer, history lover, movie buff, Sigma Pi Man, and huge fan of Coffee & Conversation.

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I'm spending most of my time these days writing about diabetes over atDiabetesMine... I'm very proud of the diabetes journalism work there, so make sure to go check out that "diabetes newspaper with a personal twist." Meanwhile, it's fun keeping tabs on my personal life adventures here at The Corner Booth.

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